382 
JOHN HENLEY. 
This strange man struck medals, which he dispersed as tickets to 
his subscribers : A star rising to the meridian, with this motto, “Ad 
surama and below Inveniam viam, aut faciam.’' Each auditor paid 
one shilling. His audience was generally composed of the lowest 
ranks ; and it is well know n, that he once collected a vast number of 
shoemakers, by announcing that he could teach them a speedy mode 
of operation in their business ; which proved only to be, the making 
of shoes by cutting off the tops of ready-made boots ! His motto on 
this occasion was “ Omne majus continet in se minus.” He was author 
of a weekly paper of unintelligible nonsense, called The Hyp-Doctor, 
for which secret service he had one hundred a year given him, and 
w'hich was intended to counteract the etfect of The Craftsman ; a proof 
how little his patron, Sir Robert Walpole, knew of literary assistance. 
Henley used, every Saturday, to print an advertisement in the Daily 
Advertiser, containing an account of the sub jects on which he intended 
to discourse on the ensuing evening, at his oratory near Lincoln’s-Inn- 
Fields. The advertisement had a sort of motto before it, which was 
generally a sneer at some public transaction of the preceding week. 
Dr. Cobden, one of George H.’s chaplains, having, in 1748, preached 
a sermon at St. James’s from these words : “Take away the wicked 
from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righte- 
ousness it gave so much displeasure, that the doctor was struck out 
of the list of chaplains; and the next Saturday, the following parody 
of his text appeared as a motto to Henley’s advertisement : 
“ Away with the wicked before the king. 
And away with the wicked behind him ; 
His throne it will bless 
With righteousness. 
And we shall know where to find him,” 
Henley died October 14th, 1756. In his account of himself, he 
assumes the credit of considerable learning, and a strong zeal for 
knowledge, which at one time certainly was the case ; but his talents 
became miserably perverted, if w'e may judge from the specimens we 
have seen of his compositions. Both his style and his thoughts are 
low ; vanity and censoriousness are the most conspicuous qualities, 
and his manners, become gross and ferocious, corresponded with his 
writings. 
Orator Henley is a principal figure in two very humorous plates of 
Hogarth ; in one of which he is christening a child : in the other, 
called the Oratory, he is represented on a scafifold ; a monkey, over 
whom is written “ Amen,” by his side : a box of pills, and the Hyp-Doc- 
tor, lying beside him. Over his head. The Oratory : “ Inveniam viam, 
aut faciam.” Over the door, “ Ingredere at proficias.” A parson re- 
ceiving the money for admission. Under him, the Treasury. A 
butcher stands as porter. On the left hand. Modesty in a cloud ; 
Follyv in a coach ; and a gibbet prepared for Merit ; people laugh- 
ing. One marked “ The Scout,” introducing a puritan divine. 
Henley, says a late judicious reviewer of his life, was a scholar 
of great acquirements, and of no mean genius ; hardy and inventive, 
eloquent and witty, he might have been an ornament to literature. 
